Springbank 18 (2024 Release)

Springbank 18 (2024 Release)

Region: Campbeltown

ABV: 46.0%

Price: £110.00

In a departure from last year's release, the 2024 Springbank 18 is composed entirely of bourbon casks. 

Nose

The nose opens with a fairly fresh creamiess, reminiscent of lime zest sprinkled into Chantilly cream, alongside aromas of musty dunnage warehouses, wet cardboard, green apple flesh and white sandwich bread. It's a fairly expressive nose, not in any way restrained and we keep getting different sides of it as we go back. Time and air brings out more of a fruit salad, lots of pineapple, papaya and a little mango puree. The peat here is very mellow, only really noticeable if you're looking for it, and shows itself in more of an earthy, slightly coastal manner.

Palate

The palate has a creamy, slightly oily sweetness up front, we're reminded of a creme brulee with the torched sugar topping, alongside a burst of freshness from the lime we detected on the nose. Those fruits we found on the nose are still present, still lots of pineapple and papaya, but they're perhaps overshadowed by some biscuitier flavours, custard creams, oat bites, a touch of milk chocolate and some honey nut cheerios too. The mouthfeel is decent and the finish has a good length, primarily cocoa beans and some salty peat flavour.

Nose (with water)

The reduced nose brings more of the cask to the forefront, it's much more wood-forward, but in a sweet vanilla, caramel and fudgey way. There's also more maltiness for us, but we're still getting some of those citrus and tropical fruits appearing in the background. It's not lost anything persay, it's more like shuffling of the aromas around.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate follows in the footsteps of the reduced nose, but becomes a fair bit drier and slightly bitter on the latter part of the palate. There's lots of lime and creamy vanilla up front, but more earthy, vegetal flavours appear later on - definitely a bit more peat and a bit of peppery spice too.

Conclusion

We really like 100% bourbon Springbank so we had high hopes for this dram. Fortunately it lives up to what we were expecting - lots of vanilla sweetness, a fruity, funky Campbeltown spirit all working well together. It's a little less coastal than we were expecting, however we're still happy with the result. Another quality release from Springbank.

Score: 8/10

Value

Springbank 18yo remains significantly cheaper than most of its rivals offerings. It also remains incredibly hard to get.

• 10 - Perfection. One in a million
• 9 - Outstanding. Exceptional whisky.
• 8 - Great. Would seek this out.
• 7 - Good. Quality whisky.
• 6 - Above average. Happy to have a dram.
• 5 - Average. Drinkable whisky.
• 4 - Below average. Passable.
• 3 - Flawed. Noticeable negatives.
• 2 - Defective. Significant faults.
• 1 - Offensive. Pour it out.

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